Vegetable Soup with Dumplings 5/5 Spoons

Ugh, you guys. I am still not in the Christmas spirit. I woke up early this morning and wrapped presents, still didn't work. I'll be making Christmas cookies on Thursday, not sure if that will do the trick either. Luckily I am not talking about Christmas with this meal, Vegetable Soup with Dumplings.

Yup, this is a Rachael Ray recipe. I may not love the woman either but this is a wonderful vegetarian soup and I can't hate on anyone who takes my food choices into consideration.



(picture courtesy of She's in the Kitchen)

Ok, I know I really need a camera. And this picture is probably the closest to what my soup ended up looking like (sans chicken).

Let's see here.... My tweaks to the recipe:

-- I used two dried bay leaves instead of one fresh one. I know you are supposed to halve dried ingredients in replacement for fresh ones, but whatever. I live on the wild side.
-- Instead of Dijon mustard, I used brown deli mustard because that is what I use on my sandwiches. I'm sure any kind of mustard is fine but if you use yellow, I would probably drop it down to 1/2 T. instead.
-- I made my own dumplings from scratch using this recipe. If you like a lot of dumplings, make the whole recipe. I would advise halving it if you are more into the veggies than the dumplings. And put the parsley in as RR suggests, it really gives it a fresh flavor! PS - Making these vegan would be a cinch, I used soymilk in my mine and they turned out wonderful. I'll try making the dumplings with Earth Balance next time to make this dish totally vegan.

This soup is thick and satisfying (that's what she said?) along with being chock full of vegetables. I realize there is quite a bit of butter strewn throughout but whatever, it's winter, right? You need the butter in the dumplings though for them to be tender yet firm, so don't skimp on it people!

I give this recipe:

5/5 spoons!

See you again VERY SOON.